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Obituary: Sandor M. Polster
1942–2013
EDITOR’S NOTE: Longtime Orient adviser Sandy Polster died yesterday at his New York home after battling cancer for more than two years. Bill Wheatley, a close friend of Sandy’s and former executive vice president of NBC News, notified friends of Sandy’s death in an email yesterday evening to which the following obituary was attached. “As you know, Sandy loved to write. Accordingly, he composed his own obituary, which he asked be sent to you,” Wheatley wrote. Sandy advised The Orient for 12 years, presiding over a marked increase in the professionalism of the paper. Which is not to say that he was satisfied: “One hundred percent of The Orient is 40 percent overwritten,” he once said. To a student body with a four-year memory, his perspective was invaluable. He is missed, but his guidance steers us still.
WRITER’S NOTE: Greetings from the beyond, wherever it is. While death is life’s only certainty, most don’t know the when and how. I did, and I decided it would be fun if my final writing assignment were my own obituary. —s.
Sandor M. Polster 1942-2013Sandor M. Polster, who worked closely with Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw as writer and news editor in the 1970s and 1980s, died on March 21 at his apartment in New York. He was 71. The cause was complications from gastric cancer, which he had battled for more than two years.
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Obituary: In memoriam: Remembering Sue Danforth, College Editor
1960-2013
Susan Danforth, associate director of communications and College editor, died on Sunday at Maine Medical Center after suffering a stroke at her home in South Portland on Friday. She was 53 years old. In an email sent to all College employees on Sunday evening, President Mills wrote, “Sue was a diligent professional whose careful work touched every corner of our campus for more than a decade...This unexpected and sudden loss of a truly talented and dedicated colleague touches so many of us, and reminds us of the fragile nature of life.”
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Obituary: Remembering Leslie Shaw, professor of anthropology
Visiting Assistant Professor Leslie Shaw, who taught anthropology at the College since 1998, died unexpectedly on the evening of August 29 following complications from surgery. She was 57 years old.Shaw will be remembered for her tremendous spirit, influential work, and role as a mentor, colleague, and friend.
“Leslie quietly set a high bar for service, excellence and collegiality, qualities that we each hope to achieve with some measure of grace but which she embraced with seeming ease,” Christle Collins Judd, dean for academic affairs, wrote in an email to the Orient.
Shaw demonstrated a clear passion for her work that was evident to students and colleagues alike. Professor Susan Kaplan, chair of the sociology and anthropology departments, said Shaw brought quiet, but palpable energy to the departments.“She’d come into a room and she’d be a powerful presence,” Kaplan said. “Very quietly, not grandstanding.”
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Obituary: Leslie Shaw, visiting assistant professor of anthropology, dies unexpectedly at 57
Visiting Assistant Professor Leslie Shaw, who taught anthropology at the College for fourteen years, died unexpectedly on the evening of August 29 following complications from surgery. She was 57 years old. President Barry Mills and Dean of Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd alerted the Bowdoin community of the loss in an email on Thursday morning.
Shaw arrived at Bowdoin in 1998. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maine at Orono and her Ph.D from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. During her time at Bowdoin, Shaw taught a number of courses ranging from “Indigenous Peoples of North America” to “Archeology of Gender and Ethnicity,” and most recently, “Maya Archeology and Ethnohistory.” Shaw continued to teach courses through the spring of 2012. -
Obituary: Remembering first female grad Susan Jacobson ’71
Bowdoin's first female graduate, Susan Jacobson '71, died October 4 after a long battle with type 1 diabetes and its complications. Her mother, Shirley Jacobson, told the Orient that Susan Jacobson had lived with type 1 diabetes since she was 16 years old. She is survived by her mother, father, siblings and nephew.
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Obituary: Mathematics professor dies of leukemia at 63
Professor of Mathematics Steve Fisk, whose intelligence inspired not only his students during his career at Bowdoin, but also his discovery of a mathematical proof that his colleagues considered "breathtaking," died on January 31 at the age of 63 after a 10-year battle with leukemia.
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Obituary: Activist alum dies in crash
When Hanley Denning '92 arrived in Guatemala in 1997 looking to learn the language, she did not expect to find her life's calling?especially not in an open-air garbage dump in the slums of Guatemala City.
But after a friend brought her to the dump to show her the dozens of families scavenging newly deposited trash for items to eat and sell, Denning knew that she had found a place where she was truly needed. Within the week, she sold her computer and her car for money to rent a room in a run-down church and began what would become her life's work.
Denning was killed in a car crash en route to Antigua, Guatemala, on January 18. She was the founder of Safe Passage, an organization that provides local children the hope and support they need to continue their educations and keep them from growing up to comb the dump for food and clothing, as their parents now do.
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Obituary: Bowdoin community mourns loss of King ’07
Bus loads of students will head to Lowell, Massachusetts, today and Saturday to mourn the loss of Bowdoin junior Taryn King, who died last Thursday while studying away for the semester in Ireland.